Canada's border agency ignored most recommendations by coroner’s jury

Tara Carman, Vancouver Sun03.29.2016

Lucia Vega Jimenez is shown in a coroner’s inquest handout photo released Monday, Sept. 29, 2014. Jimenez died in hospital days after she was found hanging in a Canada Border Services Agency holding cell at Vancouver’s airport.

Canada’s border agency has implemented just one of the 19 recommendations made a year and a half ago by a coroner’s jury examining the in-custody suicide of a Mexican woman who was about to be deported.

The jury made 23 recommendations, of which 19 were directed at the Canada Border Services Agency or the ministry responsible, Public Safety Canada.

The revelations come after two immigration detainees died in Ontario earlier this month prompting advocacy groups to renew calls for independent oversight of the border agency. One of those deaths was a suicide; the cause of the other has not been made public.

The Vancouver Sun asked for the status of each of the jury’s recommendations and for those that have not been acted upon, to explain why. In an emailed response, CBSA spokeswoman Kathy Liu detailed the one recommendation the agency has implemented — mental health and suicide prevention training for all personnel dealing with detainees — and said there has been progress toward three others. But she made no mention of the 15 other recommendations directed at the agency, saying only that “the Canada Border Services Agency values the feedback from the inquest and will continue to use the recommendations to inform our work.”

The coroner’s jury made the recommendations in October 2014 after hearing evidence related to the suicide of Lucia Vega Jimenez the previous year. Jimenez hanged herself using a sheet in a shower stall of the holding centre at the Vancouver airport while awaiting deportation.

She was detained Dec. 1, 2013 after a Transit police officer who caught her without a SkyTrain ticket called the border services agency to confirm her identity. She was taken first to the airport holding centre, where a CBSA officer issued a deportation order.

She was then transferred to the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women in Maple Ridge, where she stayed two weeks. Jimenez, like all immigration detainees, was issued prison clothes, held in the highest security section of the facility and had restricted access to phone, Internet and even her own money — she was carrying $540 when she was detained. She saw a licensed practical nurse who recommended she be seen by a mental health professional, but she was transferred back to the airport before this happened.

After being told her flight was booked, Jimenez was taken in handcuffs and prison attire back to the immigration holding centre, a windowless facility in the airport where several immigration lawyers said they have difficulty reaching their clients, either in person or by phone.

A guard found her in the shower stall early the next morning after being alerted by other detainees. The inquest heard that the guard, an employee of a subcontracted security firm, did not perform room checks every half-hour as required because the facility was chronically understaffed. Had he done so, he would have found Jimenez much sooner.

The jury recommended a dedicated immigration detention facility with natural light and access to phones, Internet and the outdoors, located within 30 minutes of the airport and accessible to lawyers, friends and family of detainees. This is similar to the facility in Toronto.

At minimum, the jury recommended the following changes to the existing facility:

• Increased access for lawyers and community groups;

• Staffing by CBSA officers;

• Self-harm proofing;

• Telephones capable of free local calls and availability of international calling cards;

• Call buttons in the sleeping areas and bathrooms of the facility;

• A defibrillator in the control room.

The border agency has added phones capable of local calls and made free calling cards available at the holding centre, Liu said. The agency also replaced the shower rod Jimenez used to hang herself. However, the private security contract went out to tender shortly after the inquest and a different firm now provides guards.

Liu’s statement did not say whether any other harm proofing had been completed. A prison design expert who testified at the inquest identified many structures in the facility, including certain furniture and fittings, that could be used as possible ligature points.

Immigration lawyer Peter Edelmann, who often represents refugees, said he does not know if access to the facility has improved because he usually meets clients at the Library Square holding cells, where space is limited. The Sun requested a guided tour of the facility, respecting detainees’ rights to privacy, but that request was denied.

The jury also called for an ombudsperson to mediate concerns brought forward by detainees and a civilian oversight organization to monitor the CBSA, which has long been advocated by groups such as the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale suggested change may be coming in a statement last week in which he expressed concern about the two recent suicides in the Toronto area.

“The government is examining how best to provide the Canada Border Services Agency with appropriate review mechanisms,” the statement said.

But the CBSA’s failure to say whether it has addressed the majority of the recommendations indicates a lack of transparency that has long plagued the agency, said Josh Paterson of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

“To not even answer those questions, is, I think, shocking,” he said. “We don’t do these inquests for nothing.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story referred to both Ontario prison deaths as suicides; in fact, only one death has been confirmed as a suicide.

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Canada's border agency ignored most recommendations by coroner’s jury

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